International routes drove 87% of MIA’s 2026 cargo growth
Cargo rose as international seat capacity fell, leaving forwarders with a question about how the added freight was carried.
Key Takeaways
- •International cargo rose 10.74% through September; domestic cargo rose 8.10%.
- •International routes carried 83.9% of total cargo, up from 83.6% a year earlier.
- •September’s inbound international cargo outweighed outbound cargo by about 31%; this is a one-month comparison.
International routes accounted for 87.1% of the cargo tonnage Miami International Airport added in the first nine months of 2026, a 22Miami calculation shows.
The airport recorded 222,787 more international tons than a year earlier, against 32,888 more domestic tons, according to MIA’s September traffic report. That adds work for forwarders and warehouse operators around MIA.
- International: 2026 tons: 2,296,462; 2025 tons: 2,073,675; Change: +10.74%; 2026 share: 83.9%
- Domestic: 2026 tons: 439,067; 2025 tons: 406,179; Change: +8.10%; 2026 share: 16.1%
- Combined: 2026 tons: 2,735,529; 2025 tons: 2,479,855; Change: +10.31%; 2026 share: 100.0%
Source: Miami-Dade Aviation Department; shares calculated by 22Miami. Cargo is freight plus mail. The report labels weight as tons. Published rounded totals and components can differ by one ton.
International work already dominated the airport, so the mix moved only slightly: its share rose from 83.6% to 83.9%, or 0.3 percentage points.
Freight rose as seats fell
Express and general freight drove the gain. International freight climbed 10.81%, to 2,293,031 tons, while international mail fell 20.75%, to 3,431 tons.
International seats fell 1.73% over the same period. Commercial aircraft movements rose 0.64% and landed weight 0.79%. The report gives no split between belly cargo and freighters, the next question for carriers and the aviation department.
MIA’s cargo page lists perishables, pharmaceuticals, e-commerce and high-tech goods among its freight lines, each with its own handling needs. Tonnage measures weight across all of them.
More arrives than leaves
September’s international cargo leaned inbound: 142,893 tons deplaned and 109,237 enplaned, a difference of 33,656 tons and a ratio of 1.31 to 1.
A warehouse can set its own inbound and outbound tons against that ratio. A site running closer to even has a different scheduling problem from one that receives far more than it ships.
The September table covers direction for one month. A nine-month direction figure requires the airport’s monthly reports, and a holiday-season forecast requires the same months from earlier years.
For staffing a receiving dock, September’s 33,656-ton inbound surplus is a different signal from the nine-month growth rate.
